Search Engines

AlltheWebSingle database of indexed Web pages. Displays documents that contain all of the words specified in the search. Very large database, but many duplicate records are retrieved in searching. Ability to search only video or audio files.

AltaVistaOffers 2 levels of searching: simple and advanced. Results are rank-ordered according to the number of words retrieved in the query. Allows searches to be constrained to particular subsets of information, such as web pages or Usenet news articles.

ExciteOffers concept search capabilities by matching words with ideas that are closely related to them. Results are displayed 10 at a time, in decreasing order of confidence. Links results to additional sites of interest.

GoogleUses phrase searching and relevance ranking based on link analysis of each site. Currently the search engine with the largest index.

Google ScholarThis new Google search tool targets "scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research." Currently only in beta version with no advanced search features.

Guide to Search EnginesThe site provides an overview of the different types of search engines and their advanced searching capabilities. From the University at Albany Libraries.

HotBotDisplays documents that contain all of the words specified in the search. Supports phrase, proximity, and boolean searching.

LycosOffers various search capabilities, as well as additional information such as site reviews, city guides, road maps, and a software section.

MetacrawlerMeta search engine that returns results from some of the main engines and gives them a quality ranking. Checks for dead links.

WebCrawlerAllows for basic searching, with limiting and broadening techniques. Provides search boxes at the top of every page for convenience.

Who Where?Searches for people on the internet, looking for either an e-mail address or a phone number and street address.

Yahoo!Defined as a "searchable, browsable hierarchical index of the Internet." Searches categories, titles, and comments which contain all the requested keywords. Offers the ability to customize queries.